No COVID-19 deaths recorded, 73 more persons contract virus

The number of novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) cases continues to rise in Guyana as 73 more persons tested positive for the life-threatening disease in the last 24 hours but no deaths were recorded.
According to the Ministry of Health’s updated COVID-19 dashboard on Sunday, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country has now gone up to 20,378.
Of these, however, only 1596 are currently active cases. This includes 16 patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the remaining 1580 persons in isolation, that is, 88 in institutional isolation and the remaining 1492 in home isolation.
There are also nine other persons in institutional quarantine.
Guyana’s COVID-19 death toll remains at 478 after no fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours. The last fatality was a 50-year-old female from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) who died on Friday while receiving care at a medical facility.
Since the beginning of July, two persons have succumbed to the life-threatening disease. The total number of deaths from the pandemic in the month of June was 78. May was the deadliest month with 99 COVID-19 fatalities after surpassing April’s 66 death toll.
Additionally, some 18,304 persons have recovered from the life-threatening virus to date.
Meanwhile, since the outbreak of the pandemic in Guyana last year, 193,306 persons have been tested for the novel coronavirus so far of which 10,434 females and 9944 males were positive cases.
A breakdown of the 73 new cases on Sunday showed that 10 were detected in Region One (Barima-Waini); 11 in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); a whopping 38 cases in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica); three in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); another 10 cases in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and the remaining one case in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).
There were no new cases recorded in Regions Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) in the last 24 hours, according to Sunday’s COVID-19 dashboard.
In order to curb the rising number of cases in the country, the Guyana Government launched its COVID-19 vaccination exercise back in February and is aggressively rolling it out in the various regions in order to achieve heard immunity.
Recent data show that, more than 235,000 persons have received their first dose of the vaccine, representing over 47 per cent of the adult population. Meanwhile, fully immunised persons in the country are now more than 112,000, that is, approximately 21 per cent of persons 18 years and older.
Persons are encouraged to get immunised since the COVID-19 vaccine gives full protection against death. In fact, health authorities have disclosed that no one who is fully vaccinated with both doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been hospitalised or died from the virus.
Nevertheless, as more people continue to get vaccinated, authorities are urging the public to continue observing all COVID-19 preventative measures, particularly masking in public, social distancing and frequent hand washing and sanitising. The measures also include a 22:30h (10:30 pm) to 04:00h (4 am) national curfew that is in effect until July 31, 2021.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as of Sunday, some 182,319,261 confirmed cases were reported globally along with 3,954,324 deaths.
The WHO also reported on Sunday that in the Region of the Americas, that is, Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 72,480,288 while the death toll in the region has gone up to 1,905,627.